The Green Fairy

In the year 1894 a man from France with the name Paul verlaine was elected as "Prince of Poets" by his peers,a great French poet, with a sad end. His last years were of slum, alcoholism and poverty,and spent most of his days drinking Absinthe,

The Absinthe drinker is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry. the expression fin de siècle usually refers to the end of the 19th century, in Europe...Might be Alcohol for all the up's and down's ,but not certainly ABSINTHE. oh Absinthe How unfortunate to get the blame of all times

The humble Absinthe getting the blame at all times, it happened nine years after Verlaine death, again a man carrying the name Jean lanfray, not a poet though, consumed seven glasses of wine, forgetting its brand name he added Six glasses of Cognac to it, with belly full of Thirteen glasses, he added One glass of coffee glazed with brandy and Two crème de menthes which summed up Sixteen glass. With much hunger he ate One sandwich , after gulping in two glass of Absinthe.This mad man with Sixteen glass plus Two glass of Absinthe, Shot his pregnant wife and his two kids for an argument with his wife,and Six months later he was convicted and received thirty years imprisonment ,

And then It was argued by his attorneys that the two ounces of absinthe he consumed prior to the murders were solely to blame for his actions , Dr. Albert Mahaim, a leading Swiss psychologist, testified that Lanfray suffered from "a classic case of absinthe madness", the result was more of a moral panic against absinthe in Switzerland and other countries. A petition to ban absinthe in Switzerland received 82,000 signatures, and on May 15, 1906, the Vaud legislature voted to ban absinthe , again an unfortunate thing.



And then in eighteen ninety nine , in the month and date of October 29th, he got out of bed and had dinner in his room before going to a café with Robert Ross, one-time lover and devoted supporter. They drank absinthe. Warned that it was poison to him, he replied, "And what have I to live for?" Thtas what he said and that "HE" was OSCAR WILDE

Is that what Absinthe make/bring out of you, uttering "what have I to live for? with a Question in the end? and the untold answers were this , This King of spirits "Absinthe" made the best out of Vincent Van gogh , the great painter who made more than twenty one hundred art works, He was an Alcohol lover, more precisely an Absinthe lover, forget how his life ended, but then the notable work of his is always awesome.

Every positive value has its price in negative terms... the genius of Einstein leads to Hiroshima.said Pablo Picasso, a great Spanish painter, sculptor, stage designer and an influential artist, who is noted for his painting the Absinthe drinker, On 23 June 2010, the painting was sold at auction for £34.7 million. Money may not be a thing to consider . But then, what here matter is the essence of Art and Absinthe.

I missed out, These great people, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Aleister Crowley and Alfred Jarry were all known drinkers of absinthe. great and successful .

There is more to continue , The drink is like an open book , you cannot find an end, where is the end? So here without ending the Absinthe and To close this post , I leave it to you judge what is good and what is not good? to me nothing is bad and nothing is not bad, Its just Different.... If a chance comes on your way leave not, HAPPY ABSINTHE


photo:unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com, wikipedia.com

love love ,,,,, Absinthe....

I do not have a slotted spoon , nor a cube of sugar.I do not have a reservoir glass nor a French climate. All I have is a bottle of Absinthe and a sober mind to drink. I write this with a large , sorry extra large of Absinthe in me,. wonder what Absinthe is ?Historically defined as a distilled highly alcoholic beverage around 45 to 70 % proof. It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs (wormwood), including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium(worm wood), commonly referred to as "grande wormwood", together with green anise and sweet fennel. Absinthe traditionally has a natural green colour but can also be colourless. It is commonly referred to in historical literature as "la fée verte" (the "green fairy" in French).

Worm wood a herb which gives color and flavor to Absinthe, has an essential oil called 'Thujone' which can bring your mind to a peculiar state of heightened awareness, its like a kind of open it up to new ideas, thoughts, concepts, and no wonder a favorite drink of Van gogh, Hemingway, Picasso and Oscar wilde.They called it the green fairy. and I call it the Green green fairy, after a drink everything is green, what i look, the fan, the refrigerator, the mirror and I in the mirror.

I started with my dinner, cutting green onions and green tomatoes, the green chili looked more green and my fried eggs almost green.Van gogh a painter whose work, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty, and bold color cut off his ear for different reason but then he was under the influence of absinthe all his life, perhaps an extra large of Absinthe cold have been in him when his ear came off. Today here I am happy looking at the silver knife with black handle with a faded green in it.

A critic said that Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.and many countries banned it .. oh what a unfortunate thing to happen.

But then, here I am very much fortunate enough to have a student from France , remembering and bringing me absinthe , A simple word of 'thanks' is not Enough for you Sow for the Mighty Green drink, and to the readers the Brand what I drank is ABSENTE a refined Absinthe with slightly lower concentration of Thujone and the legend Van gogh self portrait on it, ABSENTE is a French word , Translates to ABSENT in English but here I am very much present with the Green Fairy.....

to be continued.....................

Sweet... and the sour Thirteen

So many things happening,and I am combining everything together, My my brother in law got a gift of baked cookies for this Diwali, every year they get a pack of sweets which will be sweet, and this year its something ironic the Cookies(tough it had sweet in it), and the best part is, its we who baked it. I didn't really knew it will end up in all government office for this Diwali as a token of gift from my school.

While pondering on why Cookies this year, rather than some sweets, which was the classical tradition of my school as well as the society,it took just an instance for the answer,its not only the way of being unique but also the price/cost of sweets , which is exaggerating.

Last week I was in Annapoorna Sweets looking at the photograph of Diwali sweets, with Amaravishy, I didn't know that the photograph will deceive you that easily with reality, I took four ladoos with rupees thirteen for each and its , not even an one mouth bite.What to call it, Entrements? or Hors d oeuvre?. That made a real sense why my school gifted Cookies in place of sweet as a substitute.(not the price tough)

The Cookies here is worth mentioning ,taking its name from the Dutch word koekje or koekie which means little cake,Its commonly baked until crisp enough that they remain soft, but some kinds of cookies are not baked at all. Cookies are made in a wide variety of styles, using an array of ingredients including sugars, spices, chocolate, butter, peanut butter, nuts or dried fruits. The softness of the cookie may depend on how long it is baked.With the ranging variety from dropped , pressed, refrigerated molded, bar and sandwiched, one will never say a no to cookie.

Later , which was three days before Diwali, I was all ready for the preparation of our annual ladoos for Diwali, The sleepy eyes after the chicken lunch, judged the quality of syrup with preciseness, and indeed the final consistency is one hundred percent perfect. Looking the frying boondis through a perforated spoon, one would easily forget the tiring legs and the hand of clock. After Six sweet hours of preparation the result counted to almost two hundred ladoos,

The sumptuous and wonderful sweet came out so well, that I would call the ladoo is Amaravishy place as magnificent ,but with the thirteen rupees one,which lacks the basic characteristics of sweet, do not even deserve the place/position to be called a so called sweet.So the next time when I come across a Thirteen rupees sweet(ladoo), I'll just avoid it as the numeral thirteen.

Between the five years

When I was a little boy say around five, every thing which comes out of oven in round crisp consistency is Biscuits to me, I have never come across the word Cookies for another fifteen years. Later in my under graduation during a training time with a popular bakery in Coimbatore, I had my first encounter with cookies, The variety in preparing and the different styles of it made more lavish, I would call it a Sumptuous bake. I practiced the art of rounding the dough and piping the batter for the umpteenth time, forgetting that the measurement is the main soul of baking.Then my twenty year old mind didn't care much about recording the recipe in a written form and... that was then.

Much later, that is after another five years, I had the best opportunity to record the recipe, that was when the tsunami came in Chennai, Unexpected , same like our unexpected time in a very popular bakery in Chennai, Say our work starts at midnight and winds early morning, then the twenty five old mind of mine looked the commercial part of baking, forgetting the inner soul - the measurement.

Today after Five year, witnessing batches of batches of cookies prepared in our department for the Diwali fest, is a kind of nostalgia. wondering what relation between cookies and Diwali, there are too many answers , but the best thing is to keep wondering. We had five varieties of cookies, starting from Choco chip, choco nut, cherry, Masala and the last Salt. Everything has its own character, and texture. I happily saw the students of the final year working with the dough, without any resentment . I saw great master chefs in them , and Wonderful team leaders in them.

wishing them good luck, I pestered them to make note of the measurement, because I don't want them to wait another five days or five years. If measurement seems very complicated , its simple to use the bakers percentage, that will make things easier, to remembered or at least to record.


Bakers percentage = total weight of Ingredient/ total wt of flour X 100

The weight of flour in all the recipe is 100%

For example a recipe calls for
Flour = 200 gms = 200/200X100 = 100 %
sugar= 30 gms = 30/200X100 = 15%
Butter= 50 gms =
salt 10 gms=


more on cookies in the next post..
happy baking,

All is well..

A nine nights and ten day festival, worshiping the Hindu god Shakti is called,The Navratri.and we along with the students celebrated Navratri today as an academic activity.A teaching and learning experience.

Saying all is well, do not turn a curdled milk and I learned that there are more than a couple of excuses when a milk curdles.The menu was Tempered Chick peas (Sundal), Sweet Pongal , (Spinach)Keera Vada , Sweetened Pressed rice, Mashed bananas with jaggery and a Mint sherbat.

The guest was not more than thirty , and we welcomed everyone with the sweet strong mint sherbat, followed by a speech on Navratri and Poojas. "Everything went well" is what the feedback I got,searching the meaning for the word "Everything" , my mind didn't forget that not "All is well" . Sometimes too much hospitality fades or erases the bad taste of food.Here, I am not complaining of the food ,only the sourness in it.

The milk boiling for the pongal tarted curdling, as soon as the rice is added and resulted in a sour sour taste.Later the sourness in the pongal was destroyed by adding melted jaggery and Of-course some Ghee to overcome the flavor of the curdled milk. The frowned faces on the curdled milk turned Grin when the pongal turned sweet, and towards the corner something carried more sourness and more frown.

The something was none other than the grounded dal for vada, the excited chef who was suppose to prepare the vada , soaked the dal last night , say around two am. If only he had knew-ed earlier, that over soaking will end up in sourness, he would have had a good night sleep. The hands of Mr. Manikandan(Classmate & Friend)did as much magic as possible to rectify the sourness, but gave up after comprehending that jaggery is not an ingredient in Vada.(if only jaggerey were an ingredient).


The only option left was to rename the Vada, so that , to do some justification for the sour taste in it, and Mr.Classmate did the naming ceremony, naming it Vilasikpura Vada , because there is no or nothing called as such Vilasikpura. I wondered weather its a bad omen that everything is sounding sour and tasting sour, its like breaking a yukky coconut to Hindu God, where God never feels bad , its we who carry the dilemma(yukky) in heart.

Not to my surprise, I found the last three liters of milk Curdle in front of my eyes, which was on flame for preparing Tea. My angry eyes on the student near the milk pot gave an answer that the vessel was very much clean and no soap water in it, a word from behind me said its too much of heat that made it curdle,a couple of mouths complaining the shopkeeper for the stale milk, and someone inspecting the packing date on the milk packet. But the Milk curdled is Curdled , removing the Letters TEA from the menu card.The function ended with a glass of water to wash down the dishes which the guest consumed.

The three things, The milk for pongal, the sour grounded dal and the milk for TEA, made me ponder , and its not the bad omen its like "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Thanking Edward Aloysius Murphy for his Murphy's law, I walked back slowly carrying a happy face saying "All is well, if something goes wrong, there is Murphy's to tell".

The Three G

Another day of good cooking, and its all Goan this time, the menu was Chicken cafreal with pav bun, and Prawn pulao for the main course and to end with a sweet dol dol. The briefing of the menu was not stretched, and some minor doubts kept lingering with the chefs and chefies.

The first step is with the flying ferment for the bun, and the dried yeast mixed well with the sugar, flour and water to end up as fluffy ferment, which later mixed well with dough for the bun. The fermentation took some thirty minutes , and later the second proof was for another twenty minutes ,and with two twenty degrees in a deck oven the pav bun came out well with great aroma and wonderful color.

As with pulao, few soaked the basmati and few forgot, those who forgot got a sticky pulao and those who soaked the basmati in water, ate happily the prawn pulao. The simple ground paste of the three G(Ginger, Garlic, Green Chillies) is soo good that it made the Cafreal a real feast.With a roasted brown and marinated green color , Galinah Cafreal remains my all time Favorite.

Indeed the dessert was sweet, with rice flour cooked in coconut milk and sweetened with jaggery, the stirring continued till the mixture released the Ghee which it kept drinking all through t the stirring process. The mixture was later poured in a greased plate, and was cooled before the hungry mouths and greedy hands devoured it.

All together a happy cooking session , Without knowing to what the credit goes(to the students, menu, cooking method, )i sincerely pray that every cooking session should be as happy as this one.

Indeed Inspiring ..

Four in the morning that's the time , my day starts ,and how I Carry the same energetic and exciting smile through t the day, till ten or eleven in the night is what all matters. Always have a smile and of-course have a Yes, that's what you paid for and that's what the hotel industry is all about.

There is no melancholy in my mind, I strongly agree that the hotel industry is the second most glamorous industry after the cinema industry,and that too on the last date of August , we were honored by the presence of Mr.Sanjay gupta , General Manager, Le Méridien, coimbatore.

The Occasion was the Inauguration of the activities of the department of catering science and hotel management.to be honest, I sincerely expected an elderly hotelier where you juxtapose age and experience , Ironically,what we had was a real inspiring feast of words, Words of patience, words of hospitality and words of wisdom from a young and energetic hotelier Mr. Snajay gupta, a man of virtue.


If only we had you earlier in our campus , for a lecture .We could have added more colors to our earlier batch students, The words still lingers in me, "Never say No" and NO from a service person is what no customers wants to hear. We are living with it, yet not looking at it. Sir you made us contemplate .

A man of moral excellence, I thank you for your appreciation on our invitation with a fortune cookies on it, and the way you thought the students what creativity is all about, Every one create something innovative, only very few makes them realize it and pushing them forward towards success.

I believe hospitality is an inborn behavior and the art of achieving it, is never free, and cost some commitment , love and some strong passion. and people like you can/ (and will) inculcate all the necessary ingredient , towards excellence in a hotel management graduate.

With heart full of gratitude and mind full of stimulation ,Thank you " Who practices hospitality entertains God himself"

devouringly pork

photo: flicker.com


The woods are dark, deep and dense and we three were expoloring the emotions of coorg , that's when, something got struck in my mind . The humble pork, one will never accept a coorgi cuisine without our Mr.humble in it. The pork meat is expensive than any other and that's what people prefer, one will wonder why the love it, the special masala or the meat itself.

The powdered masala is made of more coriander seeds, less of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. All these were pan broiled and later pounded into a fine powder which is of dark brown color. I got a chance to steal a look in to the ingredients and Thanking Poncha for a Kilograms of that which I am going to infuse in my daily cooking.

Another uniqueness is the Coorgi vinegar, which they call kanchampuli (thick black extract from kudampulli-dried and smoked fruit rinds of the camboge tree).. The sourness is perfect and blends well with the pork meat.. people advised me to substitute with lime juice, its like eating an egg less omlette.

Sometimes I do not like the idleness of spices lying in my shelf ,so i made it go into the pork curry, without much difficulty I found a good place which sell pork meat and the preparation went like this. First boiling pork with pinch of salt, turmeric and some Black coorg vinegar, (a pressure cooker will do better), when the meat is cooked, a mixed paste of ginger, garlic, green chilies and coriander leaves goes in after a good boil add the coorgi spice powder and adjust the seasoning. when the gravy is thick add little more of kanchampuli and remove from flame.

The pork is fine and perfect, only thing is I am tasting it outside coorg and too from a non corrgi hand, but I am sure I will make it next time to Kodagu, just for the indigenous Pork prepared from the native hands.

Coorg - A Magic Moment....

A week of solitude, yet the instinct of the world being along with me. The reason, I was in Scotland of India, and more than that with my friends Ponchas. Coorg, which is how everyone call the Kodugu region of Karnataka, It is famed for so many things. The history and mystery , the flora and fauna, the game fishing and river rafting , together an overwhelming joy.

The place I stayed is "Sidapur' one hour travel from "Mercara" the districts capital. The town is relatively small with salubrious weather, surplus peace and happiness.The name is derived from the people of Kodagu, Kodavas. The Puranic versions says the land of initial settlement was called Krodadesa which later became Kodavu. and the word Kodagu is derived from the word Kodava, Kod means ‘give’ and avva means ‘mother’, i.e mother Kaveri, the river Kaveri(the reason for my etymology)

Starting with the river, the first day was in its bank with great fishing rod and beautiful lures . The moments on the bank was really Magical except we couldn't lure any fish to out bait, even if we have baited some , I'm sure the fish would have ended back in their world, for the reason all are Herbivorous in Ponchas place.

To be precise all in ponchas place follow the principle of Lacto Vegetarianism.(except we Five) we classify us as pure meat eaters. Only we couldn't get a chance to devour any meat. Ponchas mother in law is indeed a great cook and the kitchen is awesome with all family members mis en place in it.

The five day food was a real feast, with endless varieties, The Akki Roti(rice bread)which was chewy and hard , married well with the delicious chik peas masala, I wouldn't call it the secret ingredients .Its pure Hand of taste and their affection towards cooking and their exemplary hospitality.


The Vegetable bath with cucumber raitha, the countless chandrakala in our belly while traveling, the steamed kolukatta , I would be punished if i forget to mention any one of the recipe. so here comes one, which is Quite simple and truly yummy, The shallo fried brinjals, Aubergines or eggplant, where it is thinly sliced and marinated with limejuice, coriander powder , garam masala, chilli and pinch of salt, (a dash of coorg vinegar and a teaspoon of coorg masal will also goes well). after marination its shallow fried, and the feel is tender and none will not stop with just one. It gave a secret why poncha love it. Because a real substitute for meat.. and my sincere thanks to Mrs poncha.

On my journey back home .I thought of ponchas Mother in laws promise of meat cooking next time, and I am sure it will happen only when I go alone to coorg. Its sometimes difficult with vegetarians around you and I started planning my next visit to "The Scotland of India".

The stain of Cacao.

The affinity towards Cocoa is getting stronger and stronger,Theobroma cacao, which literally means "Cacao, the food of the gods." The mighty Cocoa a powder made from cacao seeds after they have been fermented, roasted, shelled, ground, is been around in my kitchen pantry for quite long time. Only to be experimented last week. I do not call it a cocoa research, rather an eagerness to enjoy the texture of Chocolate , home made chocolate to be precise.

It was ten years ago, I remember chef Abdul , and his Home made Chocolate, me being a mere observer, helping him in greasing the mold and cleaning the sauce pans. The perfect blend of Butter, Cocoa , Milk powder and sugar turns to a beautiful slab of home made chocolate , which is later divided in to small cubes and served as compliments to all guest rooms.

That's when the affinity exactly bloomed in me, Its not the taste I like the most. It is the feel when you prepare it.to understand the sugar, cocoa, milk powder and its characteristics make you feel better.I practiced it many times and prepared it so many times , where the Cocoa stain and the better feel will last in my heart forever.

A week ago, two unopened tins of cocoa powder, created a chocolaty nostalgia in me,The cocoa instinct filling my mind, In the name of Chef Abdul, I started the old secret recipe, melting hundred grams of butter in low heat, and stirring hundred grams of icing sugar, followed by six tablespoon of Cocoa and four table spoon of milk powder. What a perfect blend, not forgetting the mixed dry fruits, the mixture was then refrigerated.

The sophomore did the honor of tasting and me drenched in the happiness of cocoa,an Italian study says a small square (20 g) of dark (bittersweet) chocolate every three days is the ideal dose for cardiovascular benefits. I do not have a cardiovascular problem, but then with an indelible chocolaty/cocoa stain in my heart and sleepy eyes on my face, I was about to leave the kitchen .That's when, my droopy eyes alerted with the sight of another unopened Cocoa tin.

Happy Chocolate!! Cacao

Cocoa Facts

*Cocoa beans contain polyphenols (similar to those found in wine) with antioxidant properties which are health beneficial. These compounds are called flavonoids and include catechins, epicatechins, and procyandins. The antioxidant flavinoids are found in the nonfat portions of the cocoa bean. The flavinoids also reduce the blood's ability to clot and thus reduces the risk of stroke and heart attacks.

*Phenylethylamine is a slight antidepressant and stimulant similar to the body's own dopamine and adrenaline

*Cocoa beans are rich in a number of essential minerals, including magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium and manganese

*Cocoa and chocolate can increase the level of serotonine in the brain. Serotonine levels are often decreased in people with depression